Cycling in Northeast Slovenia

For years, Mark had convinced me that retiring to northwestern Slovenia was the best choice. Due to its accessibility to not only mountains, rivers, and like minded outdoor enthusiasts, but access to medical care and city resources less than two hours away in any direction, we'd be spoiled for choice. During lulls at work, we’d ping each other with house sales in popular spots like Tolmin, Bovec, or Kobarid to keep the dream going. Some properties could be fixers uppers, others freshly remodeled- but because these areas are so popular for tourism, all are expensive and rarely stay on the market for long. 

In the early planning of our most recent Slovenian vacation, I pointed out that we had not been anywhere east of Ljubljana. I suggested we explore it by bike and it took zero seconds to convince him. Three years ago, we rode an Alps-to-Adriatic route, organized by a tour company called Visit Good Place. It was a mostly enjoyable week, cycling about 150 miles and climbing abut 9,000 feet with an initial fitness recommendation of low to medium. Some days I wanted to ride forever it was so pretty and the weather was so perfect and I wanted to marry the country. Some days we arrived to the hotel soggy, sore, and smelly from rain, sweat, and tears. Toward the end of this trip I mandated our bags to the balconies as they smelled like forgotten creamy potato soup left on the stove for a week in 90+ degree weather. We successfully finished the route tired, but proud.

My fate was sealed when I picked Visit Good Place’s Backcountry Gravel Tour that started in Maribor and ran west over four mountain ranges that would dip plummet in and out of Austria. The route would cover 200 miles and climb more than 28,000 feet during the week. Fitness recommendation: medium to high. Huh, I thought. I'm fit, no problem!

Having been a regular worker-outer, and Zwifting or bike commuting every day, I didn’t think what “medium to high” meant IRL outside of Astana where the highest climb is literally riding up and over a bridge. On this trip, there were zero days I wanted to ride forever regardless of prettiness and perfect weather. All of the days, I arrived to the hotel soggy, sore, and smelly. Some days we endured 8 hour downpours and headwinds, washed out trails, and deeply neglected single track. Everyday to the end, I was too tired to mandate our bags to any balcony.

This bike ride was so hard. SO HARD. It was steep, gravelly, and isolated and the weight of my can’t-do attitude surprised me. I wanted to quit at each false summit and I was angry at the world, feeling victimized and resentful I freely signed up this. It didn’t help that the kids and Mark seemed to cruise right on by, as I heaved and whined my way to the next check point. Everyday I gave myself STFU pep talks, shoved candy into my mouth and rode the damn bike.

There were some satisfying victories, like when we made it the tops of the ski resorts with panoramic views of what we’d just conquered. Descending on asphalt instead of gravel was sublime and euphoric. Beer never tasted so good. I got to say, “yeah, I did that” everyday. Also, it turns out this part of Slovenia is desperately beautiful. The bounties of mountain peaks, the sprawling meadows of wild flowers and farmland, and thick forests made us forget about the other side of the country. On the merciful last day of riding nearly 90% downhill into an unpronounceable town named Trzic, Mark was strategizing (and nearly executing) a new retirement plan, only a 200km shift to the east.

Jezersko

Jezersko

Solcava

Šmartno pri

Somewhere between Rogla and Šmartno pri 

Black Peak Summit

Soaked but faking it

Sausage vending machine

Sausage and burgers for lunch

Rogla

descending in the back country

too steep and rutted to ride up

Strategizing

Slovenia’s Meat Obession (and other tasty things)

Slovenia is awfully proud of its cold cuts. Any normal functioning restaurant there will have locally made salami, sausage, cured ribbon, and cubed lard for an appetizer - hypertension and congestive heart failure be damned! The more generous ones will include a variety of local cheese, fruit, and nuts, though any Slovenian will tell you that their meat plates are so good, they should stand on their own. Paired with beer, of course. TasteSlovenia.si, a tourist centric site, has a scroll-heavy page dedicated solely to the ways of the sausage; how the sausage is made, where its made, and why your life has no meaning until you’ve sausaged the Slovenian way.

Meat is clearly, a big and meaningful identifier to culture in many countries. I enjoy cured meaty medallions as much as the next person, but after a while cold cuts, no matter where it is, seem to taste the same. Like any post-Soviet country I've been to, Kazakhstan is a sausage loving nation. Our grocery app has SO MANY options like halal, boiled halal, smoked halal, regular boiled, regular smoked, regular half-smoked, whole, cut, hot-dogged, chicken, beef, pork, horse... all available on demand.

I’m low-key annoyed that Slovenia is missing a huge bragging point on its hamburger making. An old blog post mentioned the restaurant Foksner in Bohinj, famous for its burgers, and this time we planned our road trip around eating there again, they are that good. The country nails beef quality. Even better, during the vacation we found two other joints that were on par, if not better than Foksner: Bar Under the Bridge (Bar Pod Mostom) a popup bar and grill on the Soci River and Come Back Burger in Trzic have burgers worthy of going out of your way for. Slovene mince is divine, without filler. Steak around the country is good too, but their burgers have ruined all others for me.

We ate and drank our way through this trip, showing my parents the summery side of Slovenia since they had only visited in winter. Though having been retired in Colorado for about a decade, they still talk about moving overseas for their official official retirement, so this trip was our hard sell, seeing as it’s where Mark and I would like to end up too. Winter half convinced them already, summer could actually seal the deal! Our days were filled with cave exploration, gorge hiking, waterfall viewing, swimming, and winery visits to tasting varietals like Barbera (venous red), Zelen (spicy fresh), or Malvasia (tart but tame) grapes. We tasted orange wine. It's not for everyone and no thank you.

We crossed into Cormons, Italy for a few days for Friulano and Ribolla whites where, throw a rock in any direction and you’ll hit a winery. They too, have their world class cold cut prosciutto, supposedly due to the region's mix of Adriatic breeze and Carnic mountain winds. I would have loved to experience either of those because the sweltering, unmoving heat just layered itself on top of us to the point where our bodies left crime scene sweat outlines on the tiled floors. On the plus side, we did eat magical 8-cheese pizza, enjoyed a 6-course cheese tasting, and got heartburn from eating so much frico (a hot cheese potato dish). I'd be seriously worried about my cholesterol if it weren't for an upcoming 300km bike ride across Slovenian and Austrian mountains.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Burger with a view (Most Na Soci) 

Lepa Vida - with labels containing homages to the female form

orange = nope

Pregaming with seafood in Piran, Slovenia

Cycling in Slovenia

For our final activity in Slovenia, we spent the last week riding bicycles from the Julian Alps to the Adriatic Sea. We hired a company called Visit The Good Place to do the logistical planning of bike fitting/issuing, hotels, routes, and luggage management. All we had to do was nag the kids to ride at least 20 minutes every day in anticipation of toughening up their butts. For eight weeks, the kids would sigh, fake smile, and get on a bicycle, probably thinking I was the worst. In the end, our persistence paid off, because they crushed over 300km and their butts were in fine shape. Deets even said thank you for it, rediscovering his love and talent for climbing mountain passes and bombing down them. Margo learned the best skill of all: how to minimize effort on the bike by drafting. She got so good at conserving energy and riding in the peloton, I wouldn't be surprised if she gets recruited to ride for the professionals. 

On the plus side of taking this kind of tour, the company moved all of our bags every morning, so packed several cases of wine to bring back to Tashkent. We used an app that kept us on our personalized route, and we got to see many fabulous towns, rivers, and views, at the pace we wanted. The bikes they supplied were fantastic, and I am now partial to gravel bikes. Bike culture in Slovenia is amazing too. We felt safe on the roads and the trails, all of which were in good condition. I learned how to manage loose gravel better on this trip and crashed only once. We had mostly good weather too.

On the minus side, we had to repack all of our junk every morning which got tiresome and SO smelly.  Every time someone would unzip a bag, I'd have to brace myself. There was not enough time to get anything washed except for scrubbing the essentials in the shower or sink. I'm pretty sure I was the only one who bothered to hand wash my bike shorts. Some of the routes ended up being too difficult for the kids' grandfather so he had to travel with the bags a few times. On the day it rained, we had no choice but to ride on, though this was actually not so bad. I had never seen Mark so happy, the kids learned how to manage wet weather, and it wasn't too chilly (when we were moving). Breaking for lunch, on the other hand, ended up being uncomfortably cold and I had to fight the urge to drink an extra glass of wine.

After the mountains, we rode into Italy for parts of the ride, through vineyards, and tree logged hills. Nearing Koper, a shipping town the Adriatic Sea, we rode through fields with signs warning of land mines. According to a Landmine and Cluster Munitions Report, they were remnants from World War I, II, and the War of Independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Although the country has since reduced the vast majority of the antipersonnel mines, some are still present for training and research purposes. Slovenia has such a chill vibe, it's strange knowing the country has gone through hell and back. The signs were sobering reminders.

Once we arrived to the sea, we celebrated with gin and tonics and ice cream. The kids played on an inflatable swim playground in the Adriatic and we watched the 29th European Handball Festival competition. The city partied so hard into the night, making for some very grumpy Schlinks the next morning, but at least we didn't have to drive.  The tour company took and our mess of stuff back to Ljubljana. We also experienced an impressive amounts of traffic- we'd been warned that beach hungry Germans and Frenchies clogged up the highways in the summer forcing everyone to add several hours of travel time. On our last night, we celebrated a family dinner for Deets' 13th and Mark's 46th, eating steak at Restavracija Špajza, the place our Tour de Slovenia pals recommended. The next day would entail overnight flights, a family locked out of the house, and eventually completing six loads of decontamination dirty laundry.

from the Alps...

Schlink fam

Kranska Gora to Bled
hundreds of km of exclusive bike trails

hydration break

Lake Bled; credit: Deets

catching the next leg of the trip

psyching ourselves up for rain riding

pretending it wasn't annoying AF to be soggy

the one and only time we had to walk our bikes

Soca River Valley + Downpour + Bikes = fun?

hydration break in Italy

discussing the benefits of drafting

"beware of mines - do not enter"
outskirts of Koper

recouping after a bike vs curb

to the end

my cycling fools

Grant, Slovenia: Village at the End of the Road

Curious to experience what was on the other side of the Julian Alps, we rented an Airbnb in the village of Grant, population 24. There are no services and the closest grocery store is an hour drive down the mountain in Tolmin. Padlocked Virgin Mary statues and Catholic shrines were everywhere, with LED candles and fresh flowers, contrasting the rural mountainy feel of log homes and farm animals. But, what really caught my attention were the automatic external defibrillator signs posted along the single lane roads. I was only allowed to stop once to take a picture, while everywhere else we went, the camera was glued to Mark's face. I guess AED signs just aren't cool. 

Most days, we would drive down to swim in the Soca River, visit more waterfalls, and occasionally hit up a super old castle and WWI mountain top trenches. We also visited the Skocjan and Postjna Caves, each famous for different reasons. Skocjan, because it's the largest known underground cave in the world, and Postjna for its underground train (and first in the world) and Olm habitat. Also known as baby dragons, they are tiny, blind, and territorially aggressive salamanders that can live up to one hundred years. I think they look like tapeworms with arms and legs, but the kids think they're cute. So much so, they bought stuffed Olms and named them after famous Slovenian cyclists.

On the days we stayed home, we read, napped, hot tubbed, watched the entirety of The Good Place, and fantasized about retirement. In fact, that was a big reason why were vacationing - to investigate towns where we might want to live and could afford. We want decent access to things like outdoor activity near or in the mountains, fresh water, a yard, medical care, and my most recent request: near a highway. I can handle windy mountain roads most of the time, but I would prefer to not be nauseated every time I drive. Dreaming BIG here, is that asking too much?

too many people tried to turn left to find Grant.

shed behind the house

hiking up to Veliki Rascovec summit

like father like son
Great Soca Gorge - right off the road, no hiking required!

electricity and fire management

Tolmin Gorge

more gorge (Soca)

and another. We never got sick of the looking at clear water everywhere went went.

the only place we were allowed to take photos at Skocja Cave: the exit

Kozjak Waterfall

outside the park.

the hike I did NOT take

tripod gathering in Grant